Escalating diplomatic tensions between France and Algeria

The French presidential office issued a statement indicating heightened tensions, confirming the expulsion of 12 Algerian diplomatic and consular officials from France and the recall of its ambassador in Algeria.

According to The Guardian, the office of French President Emmanuel Macron stated: “Algerian authorities are responsible for the sudden deterioration of our bilateral relations.”

Algeria had previously protested France’s detention of an Algerian consular official suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of an Algerian opposition activist.

France later reported that Algeria expelled 12 French diplomats from its territory. Relations between France and its former colony, Algeria, have been strained for decades, but tensions worsened last year when Macron supported Morocco’s stance over Algeria’s in the contentious Western Sahara issue in Africa.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot recently claimed that relations between the two countries were returning to normal. On Friday, French prosecutors charged three Algerians, including a consular official, with suspected involvement in the April 2024 abduction of Amir Boukhors, an Algerian influencer known as “Amir DZ,” in a Paris suburb.

Boukhors, a critic of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune with over one million social media followers, has lived in France since 2016 and was granted political asylum in 2023.

Algeria has issued nine international arrest warrants against Boukhors for charges including fraud and terrorism, but France has refused to extradite him.

French prosecutors stated that one of the three individuals detained on Friday for the alleged kidnapping is an employee of the Algerian consulate in southeast Paris. Algeria, however, has denied the official’s involvement in the abduction.

In another incident fueling tensions, Macron has called on Algeria to release Boualem Sansal, a 75-year-old writer sentenced to five years in prison for “undermining national unity.”